Shakespeare in Bath + Tree!

When wallowing in Shakespeare in Stratford-Upon-Avon, I learned that there was an exceptional Royal Shakespeare Company production of The Tempest coming to Bath, where I am staying at present.
It was sold out at The Theatre Royal, but a total of 3 hours queuing secured me a standby ticket- and was well worth it.

What was wonderful about this production was that the RSC had combined with the South African Baxter Theatre Centre, including both black and white South Africans in cast and production. The result was an incredibly rich and exciting play with some great African actors, including Anthony Sher as Prospero and John Kani as Caliban,

This was a long awaited idea of Director Janice Honeyman, who wanted to emphasize the colonial aspects in order to relate to contemporary audiences. As she said “It is about greed, exploitation, dispossession of land, cultural plundering, racism, revenge, forgiveness, reconciliation and freedom. It sounds familiar?” Colonization had begun in the 16th Century and the story connects with the then current tales of colonization and adventures of English sailors. In the play Gonzalo discusses with Sebastian an idyllic Commonwealth without riches, poverty, metal, sovereignty etcetera – producing idle men and women but “innocent and pure”. The African imagery worked brilliantly.

And the set was- to my delight- dominated by a TREE! an African-handcrafted-tree that blended into the rocks. Janice Honeyman explains this: “Why do I see a a tree? A damaged, off-kilter tree…is it a revelation of the unravelling morass of Prospero’s mind as his power diminishes? Is it the ethereal environment of Ariel and the other-worldly spirits? Or is it the derelict domain of the disempowered Caliban? I think it is all of these, and more.”

The Designer- Illka Louw, together with the Puppetry master- Janni Younge- produced some fantastic images- amazing costumes and puppets. I only have the program photos to illustrate this, the first one showing part of the tree. To my mind they do not do justice to the wonderful splashes of colour which made this Tempest so memorable..

Images,1st3: Eric Miller, 4th RCA website.

Stratford-Upon-Avon: 2

Having already written at length about the Shakespeare Stratford, I now want to show a few images of trees both in Stratford and the surrounding countryside. I was particularly delighted on one of our walks to see some red Larch flowers, a particular favourite of mine:

Stratford-Upon-Avon: 1

Stratford-Upon-Avon= William Shakespeare

Last week I spent a couple of nights with friends in Stratford and somehow found that:

Stratford-Upon-Avon= William Shakespeare= Trees!

Wherever I went Shakespeare was prominent but the symbols I seemed to end up with were images of trees…

Appropriately, I stayed with a Shakespeare expert- ex. Head of Drama at Wolverhampton University and author of “The North Face of Shakespeare: Activities for Teaching the Plays”, James Stredder and his wife Kathy. Surprisingly, it was warm enough to have tea in their garden, a delightful garden full of Spring flowers and trees- Apple trees, a Pear tree and Greengage tree among others. James went to school at Malvern College where my father was Art Master and it was rewarding to hear him speak so warmly of his memories of both my parents.

On the first evening we went to a Royal Shakespeare Company preview production of “A Winter’s Tale”, which I found both visually exciting and emotional- Director: David Farr, Designer: Jon Bausor. Books were used as a dramatic theme: as the casts’ lives fell apart, the first half of the play climaxed in hundreds of books falling from collapsing bookshelves; the Bear who pursued Antigonous in Bohemia was a magnificent puppet clothed in book pages as were the dancing Satyrs. But of course what stayed in my mind was a tree with leaves of paper which descended from the flys for Perdita to make her entrance and for her and Florizel to climb.

The next morning, Kathy Stredder showed me round Stratford, pointing out the many buildings supported by The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. Again, it seemed to be the trees that caught my eye and became my Shakespeare symbols- so here they are:

The Birthplace- where Shakespeare was born in 1564: tourists queue to enter, obscured by a gnarled tree.

New Place- the site of the house where he lived from 1597-1616: Yew hedges.

The Tomb- Holy Trinity Church where he was both baptized and buried (1616), in the chancel: a prehistoric monster-like cedar tree and a cut yew tree fronted by someonelse’s tombstone.

Blackthorn Blossom

Another of my favourite early Spring flowers in the hedgerows is Blackthorn blossom, with its fragile white flowers on stark, angular branches. In the Autumn these blossoms metamorphose into the exotic blue Sloe berries with their incredible bloom.

Network Rail: The Killing Fields

While I have been revelling in the Spring flowers around Bath, destruction has been taking place on the railway embankments here. My walks have been accompanied by the constant whine of power-saws cutting down every single tree on the embankments and every shrub- beautiful, healthy Ashes, Sycamores and many more varieties, cut down for no good reason. Apparently, this is a "blanket policy" of Network Rail, who own the land.

Being concerned for the disturbed wildlife, I spoke to an RSPB representative who confirmed that bird's nesting habits would be severely effected. He said that unfortunately Network Rail according to present laws are not doing anything illegal. If one actually found proof of nests being destroyed, that would be an offence. Apart from the environmental issues- including possible erosion of the embankments- he also pointed out how the tracks, without the protection of trees and undergrowth, would be much more accessible and dangerous to children, animals and vandals.

Yet again I find it hard to understand how- when everyone is so aware of our environmental crisis- people can still ignore the value of trees and cut them down regardless. And one knows full-well that money is their only reason for this short-sighted action- possibly because Network Rail think it is more cost-effective to cut down the trees rather than trim them when necessary?

Spring in Bath: Black Poplar Catkins

One of my latest obsessions are the wonderful red male catkins of the Black Poplar trees. The sunny weather we had last week made them unfurl from their buds like amazing carmine Caterpillars and I can't stop taking photos of them. The female catkins are dull in comparison- lime green and not nearly so powerful as you will see from the final image:

Spring in Bath: Pussy Willows

Pussy Willows- the furry catkins of the Willow trees- have universal appeal. Like fluffy fledgelings and baby animals they melt our sentimental hearts. Down by the River Avon they grow in abundance and are certainly one of the early signs of Spring.

Spring in Bath: Woodland Flowers

Sad as I was to come away from Santa Monica just as one felt Spring was starting there, I am now blissfully happy to be seeing the first signs of Spring here in Bath. Every walk is exciting as one sees new buds and flowers beginning to blossom. Lining the woodland paths are White Violets, Coltsfoot, Primroses and Lesser Celandines. I was interested to read that the word Celandine comes from the Latin Chelidonia, meaning Swallow. apparently it was said that the Celandines bloomed when the Swallows returned and faded when they left- but I have not spotted any Swallows here yet...

Here are some of the flowers:

Tree-saving Success: Colorado Boulevard, Pasadena

Again, just before I left Santa Monica, Treesavers were alerted by Pasadena that their beautiful, mature Ficus trees on Colorado Blvd were about to be cut down for design reasons. We were all very shocked as Pasadena, like Santa Monica, has a "green" reputation and is renowned for it's tree-lined streets. Our Treesavers immediately gave their support.

Sadly, despite appealing to the City Council , 35 trees- mainly Ficus- were rapidly cut down.

However, I have now received good news: Pasadena City Councilmembers actually listened to their people. They have admitted mistakes were made and taken action to prevent this happening again. Having both a Tree Protection Ordinance and an Urban Forestry Advisory Committee (UFAC) they moved to give the UFAC more power.

Another factor: many activists have been saying that Santa Monica City Council should be divided into districts, to give more accountability to the Councilmembers to their constituents. It emerges that Pasadena has this system- it is divided into 7 separate districts with 7 Councilmembers, one representing each, who all work together for the best interests of Pasadena.

There is hope for the future if Santa Monica learns from Pasadena.

Tree-saving Success: Colorado Avenue, Santa Monica

I have had to return to the UK for a period, temporarily leaving lovely Santa Monica. A short time before I left, several Treesavers were concerned about a number of healthy New Zealand Christmas trees on Colorado Avenue that were about to be cut down, six of them being red-tagged. This was yet again "design" motivated, in this case for a Big Blue Bus project. Treesavers questioned the City Council and and publicised the case. For once we were listened to and I have now heard that the trees for the moment are safe and the red-tags removed. (However, there is still the possibility that they will be endangered by the proposed Light Railway if we succeed in getting it routed down Colorado Avenue as opposed to Olympic Blvd, thus saving 44 Coral trees....) Below is a photo taken by me for fellow Treesaver Cosmo Bua- who did an enormous amount to protect them- and published in the Santa Monica Mirror heading an article by Lynne Bronstein.